Pei Qian was absolutely amazed by his own genius plan.
I must be a genius to come up with such an escape method!
Unlike “Salvation,” this time’s escape weapon employed a “hiding in plain sight” approach.
“Salvation” was indeed deeply hidden, but it had to be said that players were unpredictable—no matter how deeply something was hidden, players could still dig it out.
So, for the demonic sword’s design, he simply wouldn’t hide it at all, but instead place it directly in the storyline.
This would make all players think it was just a plot item, continuing to search every nook and cranny for an escape item like “Salvation,” while overlooking the fact that the true escape item had been with them all along.
The conditions for using the demonic sword as an escape method were extremely strict.
First, the demonic sword’s damage would be lower than other weapons from the beginning. Any weapon looted from a boss, like the Black and White Impermanence’s mourning sticks, would be much stronger.
Moreover, the more bosses you defeated, the lower the demonic sword’s damage would become.
And the conditions for accumulating demonic possession were also very stringent—you must only hold the demonic sword and no other weapons.
Since the protagonist was set as a martial god, the weapon settings in “Eternal Damnation” were more flexible than in the original “Turn Back Ashore.”
The protagonist could dual-wield freely, even holding a two-handed weapon in each hand without any issues.
Two-handed weapons had much greater attack range and damage than one-handed weapons, albeit with longer attack intervals and wind-up animations.
Under these circumstances, veteran “Turn Back Ashore” players would naturally choose to dual-wield the two weapons with the highest damage and that felt most comfortable, making it easier to defeat bosses.
With the demonic sword’s attributes being so terrible, even if they picked it up, they would definitely pair it with another weapon.
But this way, they couldn’t accumulate demonic possession value.
They would have to only use the demonic sword with the worst attributes that barely hurt anyone, and die many times before they could feel the sword’s changes.
And the early changes wouldn’t be noticeable because there was a limit to the demonic possession value in the early stages. As the plot progressed further, the limit for demonic possession would increase, and only then would the “fully automatic parrying” appear.
In short, the demonic sword wasn’t good in the early game, but after dying several times, it would work fine against bosses. In the late game, continuing to die would make it more and more effective, but it would only lead to the bad ending.
For Pei Qian, knowing this mechanism in advance meant he’d just have to die a few more times and suffer a bit in the early game. But in the late game, he could escape from those highly difficult bosses.
From the game’s development to its official launch, there was a long period of time—as long as he died enough, he could eventually complete the game.
For players unaware of this mechanism, they would only choose stronger weapons or search everywhere for weapons similar to “Salvation,” never imagining that the true escape artifact had been with them all along.
Of course, there was also the possibility that some experts found the powerful weapons no longer challenging and deliberately used the most garbage weapon—the demonic sword—to fight bosses.
But there was still no need to worry about exposure.
Because such experts had already honed their skills to perfection. They wouldn’t die frequently, so they wouldn’t accumulate demonic possession value or trigger the sword’s automatic parrying.
Simply put: unskilled players wouldn’t use it, and skilled players who used it wouldn’t trigger its effects.
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more perfect it seemed.
Hehe, foolish players, you wouldn’t have guessed, would you? I’ve hidden the escape weapon in a different place!
As long as players couldn’t find the correct usage for this escape weapon, they would have to honestly clash with bosses, becoming engrossed in “Eternal Damnation.” Wouldn’t the sales of the “Turn Back Ashore” main game drop as a result?
Once it dropped, he could naturally make the game free!
Pei Qian had gone to great lengths to make the game free.
Plus, with the game’s difficulty so high, it would be perfect to torture those players a bit.
You like high difficulty? Let me show you what true high difficulty is!
I don’t believe that I, a designer, can’t handle you players!
Meanwhile, the designers were rapidly taking notes.
Hu Xianbin wanted to applaud loudly.
This design was fantastic!
It was a completely different approach from “Salvation,” yet achieved the same end result.
This setting matched the plot perfectly.
The protagonist becoming more and more possessed by demonic energy represented him gradually being controlled by demonic thoughts. Fighting under the control of these demonic thoughts, he could automatically block, but would slowly lose himself and be unable to wake up to become the Jailer, instead plunging the entire world into disaster.
Originally, the game’s difficulty was very high, but with this setting added, the game’s difficulty became dynamically adjustable.
When players got stuck and died frequently, their demonic possession value would gradually increase. The AI system would take over automatically, with the chance of automatic perfect parrying increasing, naturally lowering the difficulty, allowing players to progress.
Of course, all this was premised on players knowing about this mechanism.
If players didn’t only use the demonic sword to fight bosses, no matter how many times they died, it wouldn’t trigger.
Although this mechanism was hidden quite deeply, Hu Xianbin wasn’t worried.
Back then, “Salvation” was hidden so deeply, yet players still found it, didn’t they?
Experience proved that players’ wisdom was boundless. Anything hidden in the game would definitely be found; the only difference was sooner or later.
It had to be said, Boss Pei was truly extravagant.
Such a combat system and story background could completely be used to develop a new game.
Call it “Turn Back Ashore 2,” and it would be perfectly fine.
But Boss Pei was using such a good idea just for a DLC—truly an extravagant act!
But this also showed that Boss Pei had too many good ideas. Designs of this caliber came effortlessly to him, and he wasn’t worried at all about running out of inspiration for new games.
Thinking of this, Hu Xianbin’s admiration for Boss Pei grew even stronger.
With the main direction set, the details became easier to handle.
For instance, the weapon system in “Eternal Damnation” would also undergo significant changes compared to before.
All weapons could be freely dual-wielded, and depending on the different main and off-hand weapons, the effects of light attacks, heavy attacks, and off-hand weapon special attacks would all vary. Players could freely mix and match weapons according to their preferences.
Furthermore, after Boss Pei’s interpretation, the game’s plot became clearer, and some plot-related details in the game could now be perfected.
For example, in hell, the protagonist would encounter some enemies and villains he had slain in his previous life. These individuals had become powerful in hell and came to seek revenge on the protagonist, but were still defeated.
And by killing these enemies, or at places like the Three Lives Stone, there would be special items used to gradually reveal bits and pieces of the protagonist’s legendary story from his previous life.
The designers all felt a burst of inspiration and earnestly engaged in design.
And Yu Fei, the original author, also felt deeply inspired.
Although he was the original author of “Eternal Damnation,” he believed his understanding of the entire story was absolutely inferior to Boss Pei’s.
After Boss Pei’s interpretation, the entire story seemed to have become more profound.
Compared to Boss Pei’s understanding, many details in the original novel seemed rough.
The “Eternal Damnation” DLC had concentrated the elite forces of Tenda’s gaming department and was personally guided and crafted by Boss Pei—what a tremendous honor!
There would definitely be many players coming to read the original novel of “Eternal Damnation” out of curiosity.
If the novel fell short and disappointed players, how could that be acceptable?
So, the novel needed a major revision!
Yu Fei decided he couldn’t let his original novel drag things down. After returning, he would work tirelessly to adjust the novel’s content, making minor tweaks to the original story framework, striving to make the novel content as perfect as possible!
…
…
June 5th, Tuesday.
Meng Chang arrived at the company early in the morning again to check how the Inspiration Class promotional plan was performing.
It had to be said that the entire advertising and marketing department worked quite efficiently. After submitting the plan to Yu Yao yesterday, various web advertisements were already up today.
Physical advertisements at bus stops, subway stations, etc., would be slower, but should be fully deployed within a week!
Advertisements like these would run for a long time.
But Meng Chang wasn’t considering such distant matters. The best description of his current mindset was: Ten thousand years is too long; seize the day!
First, set a small goal: maintain reverse marketing for two weeks and get the minimum commission.
Then, set a medium goal: maintain reverse marketing for a month and get a higher commission.
As for the highest goal, it would definitely be the full commission.
But Meng Chang felt that the full commission was still too difficult. Being able to achieve the medium goal would already be something to thank heaven, earth, and Boss Pei for his mercy.
He casually browsed some online comments about the advertisement.
“What’s up with Endpoint Chinese Website’s new advertisement? It’s so ugly!”
“Being ugly is one thing, but the content also seems a bit off? These books perform quite poorly on Endpoint Chinese Website, yet they’re still being hyped up?”
“A site-wide ranking of thirty-something can be promoted as an honor? Isn’t this high-end mockery?”
“Is this promotional plan outsourced? It feels like the person making the plan doesn’t understand the web novel industry at all—it’s so unprofessional!”
“Didn’t the Endpoint Chinese Website side do any quality check?”
“I just feel this Inspiration Class isn’t good. All it incubates are a bunch of garbage works. All the participating big-name authors have been scammed—high-priced buyouts just to ruin their writing!”
Seeing these comments, Meng Chang couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.
It was exactly as expected!
In fact, many readers already had significant dissatisfaction with the Inspiration Class.
Authors were writing their original themes well, and die-hard readers loved it. But just because the Inspiration Class tempted them with high-priced buyouts, authors started writing themes they weren’t good at. Authors felt uncomfortable writing, readers felt uncomfortable reading—what was the point?
And with the Inspiration Class’s promotional plan being so poor this time, it naturally further intensified the conflict, making readers even more dissatisfied.
And this was precisely the effect Meng Chang wanted.
As long as readers’ anger and dissatisfaction continued, wouldn’t this month’s commission be secured?